Hospitals will help with Vermont Health Connect

Governor and hospital association announce partnership to reach out to Vermonters about new online insurance marketplace.

Nov. 12, 2013

Gov. Peter Shumlin announces that 16 Vermont hospitals and two in New Hampshire will promote Vermont Health Connect and assist Vermonters in using the new online insurance website. Judy Tartaglia, (right) CEO of Central Vermont Medical Center, and Patrick Clark, medical home supervisor at the Berlin hospital joined the governor for the partnership announcement. / NANCY REMSEN/FREE PRESS

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Free Press Staff Writer

BERLIN — Vermont hospitals and two in New Hampshire will help the state promote Vermont Health Connect and assist Vermonters in signing up for the medical coverage offered through this new online insurance marketplace.

“Here in Vermont we come together and work together,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said as he joined Judy Tartaglia, CEO at Central Vermont Medical Center, for the announcement of the state’s new partnership with hospitals.

“Hospitals are very happy to insure that Vermont Health Connect is a success,” Tartaglia said.

Some hospitals, including Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, have been promoting the new online website and have trained staff to assist patients in signing up for coverage. Others have just begun designating staff for training and including information about Vermont Health Connect on their websites.

“This is a partnership that evolved just because it made sense,” Shumlin said. Patients coming for tests, admission or to see physicians affiliated with hospitals are routinely asked about their insurance coverage. For those without insurance, hospital staff will share information about the plans offered on Vermont Health Connect as well as Medicaid, a subsidized health insurance program that is expanding.

“It’s all about the patients and making sure they get health care,” said Beatrice Grause, president of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems.

Tartaglia, who is chair of the association, acknowledged that hospitals benefit when more people have health insurance. “There is no question that it would help us financially.”

On average, hospitals spend as much as five percent of gross revenue on free care, which includes covering unpaid bills and pre-arranged charity care, Targaglia said.

Late last month, Shumlin announced that the 100,000 Vermonters who are required to use the new website to purchase their health insurance in 2014 would be able to temporarily extend their current coverage for three months. This extension would give the state more time to work out the glitches on the website and give small employers and individuals the option of taking more time to make the switch to buying online.

Shumlin said Tuesday that the website’s functionality continued to improve.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Vermont Health Connect reported that Vermonters had set up 13,537 accounts. For a quarter of those accounts — 3,138 — the customers have picked insurance plans using the website.

Elizabeth Steckel from Fletcher Allen said the medical center staff members who have assisted patients in using Vermont Health Connect since its launch agreed the website was working better. “In the last couple of weeks, we have had a lot of success.”